The Final Solution
Emily McSherry
Concentration Camp Life
According to Vincent Chȃtel, the day for Jews in concentration camps begins at 4 in the morning. They have the alarm of a kapo forcing them to get up and straighten their bed. After cleaning up, the Jews are given a small amount of bread and cheap coffee. Often, the kapos would try to make the Jews' lives as miserable as possible and would throw the bread in the mud or push the Jew while giving out coffee. Following this is roll call where the Jews line up in rows of ten and are counted. The uniforms worn are do not protect from the cold so the Jews often cannot stand through roll call and some even die due to this. From here, the Jews prisoners go to begin their days' work which lasts for 12 to 14 hours. It is often useless and many prisoners die from this, especially the ones who do not have a tool to work with and have to use their hands. The lunch break is often very short and the Jews are forced to return to work on an an empty stomach. If a Jew is found dead, another Jew will have to carry the body to roll call where the others line up in the same formation again. This can last even 10 hours and a prisoner is sometimes hanged and the others are forced to look as a "warning." Soup is given out for dinner and then the Jews head to their barrack for the evening. A "blockfuerher" is there to make the prisoners do straining exercises before sleep. After a painful day, the Jews must find a way to fall asleep in a cold, hard bunk tightly fitting five others.
Major Concentration Camps:
Auschwitz-Birkenaeu
Belzec
Bergen-Belsen
Buchenwald
Chelmno
Dachau
Dora-Mittelbau
Flossenburg
Janowska
Kaiserwald
Majdanek
Mauthausen
Natzweiler-Struthof
Neuengamme
Oranienburg
Plaszow
Ravensbruck
Sachsenhausen
Sobibor
Stutthof
Terezin
Treblinka
Westerbork
Labor
Labor in the concentration camps was grueling. This included leveling the ground, digging ditches, erecting new blocks and buildings, constructing roads, and digging ditches. Others worked in mines, factories, and mills.
Barracks
The barracks were the "bunk beds" for the Jews in the concentration camps. Instead of two tiers, there were three wooded planks of wood structured on each end by a brick wall. The conditions were miserable with no heat, straw mattresses, and leaky roofs. They were also overpopulated often having 700 people or sometimes more in a barrack.
Works Cited
"Auschwitz-Birkenau: Living Conditions, Labor & Executions." JewishVirtualLibrary.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
"Concentration Camps: List of Major Camps." JewishVirtualLibrary.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
Châtel, Vincent. "Just a Normal Day in the Camps." JewishGen.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
Arnold Ropeik on the Concentration Camps. Perf. Arnold Ropeik. History.com, n.d.
[Image] http://goo.gl/VjxbjW
[Image] http://goo.gl/jENhzq
[Image] http://goo.gl/UtTZ3p
"Concentration Camps: List of Major Camps." JewishVirtualLibrary.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
Châtel, Vincent. "Just a Normal Day in the Camps." JewishGen.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.
Arnold Ropeik on the Concentration Camps. Perf. Arnold Ropeik. History.com, n.d.
[Image] http://goo.gl/VjxbjW
[Image] http://goo.gl/jENhzq
[Image] http://goo.gl/UtTZ3p